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The Hidden Kingdom
The Hidden Kingdom was published May 28, 2013 and features Queen Glory, the replacement RainWing Dragonet of Destiny, as the main protagonist. The title could be referring to either the camouflaged RainWing village or the secret NightWing Kingdom, both of which are main 'hidden' locations in the book. The dragonets visit most of the kingdoms in this book, including the Mud Kingdom, Rainforest Kingdom, Ice Kingdom, Kingdom of Sand, and the Night Kingdom. The Hidden Kingdom follows The Lost Heir and precedes The Dark Secret. Summary Deep in the rainforest, danger awaits. . . . The dragonets of destiny aren't sure what to expect in the RainWing kingdom — Glory hopes to learn more about her family, and since the RainWings aren't fighting in the war, all five dragonets think they might be able to hide safely for a while. But something deadly is stalking the peaceful kingdom, and the dragonets soon discover that RainWings have been mysteriously disappearing from the forest. When the RainWing queen won't do anything to find her missing tribe members, Glory and her friends set off on their own rescue mission — which leads them right back into enemy territory. Can Glory save her fellow RainWings with her friends before it's too late? Dedication For Elliot, born in a wonderful Year of the Dragon, like these books. Plot Prologue The prologue begins with the False Dragonets of Destiny, who were mentioned in the epilogue of The Lost Heir. They are as follows: Squid the SeaWing, Flame the SkyWing, Fatespeaker the NightWing, Ochre the MudWing, and Viper the SandWing. Nautilus and Morrowseer converse, ending with Morrowseer deciding to train the dragonets personally, disapproving of what the Talons of Peace have done so far. Part 1: Rainforest Monsters The dragonets and Webs are traveling through the borders of the Rainforest Kingdom. Before they've left the Mud Kingdom, they come across two murdered MudWings, who evidently were patrolling the border. As they progress into the rainforest, Starflight notices that Sunny is missing. One by one each dragon goes missing until Starflight hides and Glory, most luckily, dodges something. It turns out that she has dodged a tranquilizing dart, that have made her friends unconscious. She orders the mystery dragons that were to come out, and they turn out to be RainWings. Glory meets two, Liana and Jambu, who offer to take them to the village. While her friends are unconscious from the darts, Glory takes her first sun time nap in the rainforest. When she wakes, she finds a sloth lying on her back, which she eventually names Silver. Jambu then shows her the village and they learn that they are related using a venom test. They return to find their friends waking and they go to meet Queen Magnificent. While waiting in line, she meets Mangrove, a grumpy RainWing, who mentions that his partner Orchid is missing as well as at least twelve other RainWings, and Bromeliad, a venom trainer, who mentions that a dragonet named Kinkajou has also gone missing. Glory suggests that they go to the queen together, since they're both there about missing dragons. When Mangrove, Bromeliad, and Glory see Queen Magnificent, Glory suggests someone investigates, and Mangrove says Glory should find the missing RainWings, and Queen Magnificent agrees. When Mangrove and Bromeliad leave, Tsunami, Starflight, Clay, Webs, and Sunny come in, and ask for help for Webs, which Queen Magnificent is reluctant about. After some prompting from Sunny, the queen directs them to the RainWing healers. After they leave the queen's treehouse, Tsunami, Webs, and Sunny head off to the healer's hut, and Starflight and Clay join Glory as she sets out to find the missing RainWings. They speak to Mangrove, and he leads them to a giant fallen tree. Glory picks up a horrible stink, and asks Starflight if he can identify it, since he seemed to have a stronger sense of smell. They find a dying sloth by a stream, which Clay puts out of its misery. Glory looks around and discovers an animus-made tunnel to the Sand Kingdom in a boulder. Starflight and Mangrove return to the village, while Glory and Clay stay to watch the tunnel overnight. While they watch, something comes by, eats the sloth, and disappears. In the morning, Sunny, Tsunami, Starflight, and Jambu arrive, and they discuss what to do about the tunnel. They settle on Glory and Clay going in with vines. When they go through, they find themselves in the Kingdom of Sand, within sight of Princess Burn's Stronghold. Part 2: Sand, Ice, and Smoke Glory and Clay take a look around from the mouth of the tunnel's end in the Sand Kingdom, and return to the rainforest. The dragonets and Jambu talk over the missing RainWings and the tunnel. Then Mangrove suddenly dashes out of the trees and into the tunnel, and flies off to the Ice Kingdom to try to find Orchid. After flying for the rest of the day, they settle down for the night in rocky terrain. In the morning, Glory flies ahead, sights Princess Blaze's Fortress, and sees a NightWing assassin named Deathbringer settling down. Using an IceWing disguise based on Fjord, she questions him on what he is doing. She secretly has a crush when meeting him. Then Glory and Jambu, disguised as IceWings, go meet Blaze who is staying at the Ice Kingdom. Deathbringer then attempts to kill Blaze after she is brought to the Dragonets. Blaze's neck gets cut by one of the two "sharp silvery discs" and Tsunami's wing, after shielding Blaze, also gets cut. Glory attacks Deathbringer when they hear the IceWings coming and takes his weapons, using one to cut him somewhat. This makes Deathbringer surrender. In fear of getting imprisoned again, the Dragonets leave, with Blaze's neck healed. Later, when they return to the rainforest, Glory is kidnapped by the NightWings. She escapes with the help of Clay, Deathbringer, and another captured RainWing named Kinkajou. When she gets back, she tells Magnificent about what happened. Seeing that the NightWings have the missing RainWings, Magnificent refuses to save them. In result Glory challenges Magnificent to the throne. Part 3: A Throne in the Treetops The RainWings have a system of picking a queen without killing, where there are competitions for the throne. Magnificent and Glory each assemble their teams. Jambu and Exquisite compete in the tree gliding and Exquisite likely cheats, nearly killing Jambu. Tamarin, a blind RainWing, and Fruit Bat compete in the flower finding hunt. Tamarin wins by finding the winning flower with her extremely good sense of smell. Glory and Magnificent compete in a camouflage contest, and Glory loses because Sliver gives her away. Mangrove and Dazzling compete in a fruit scavenger hunt and even though Dazzling cheats, Mangrove wins by one point. The last contest is between Queen Grandeur and Kinkajou in venom shooting. In the first part, Kinkajou loses. However, in the second part, Grandeur accidentally shoots at a sloth, and Kinkajou shields it, so the venom hits her instead. Glory panics and tries to do the venom test. This reveals she is related to Grandeur, so she successfully saves Kinkajou. Grandeur, who was the original queen, realizes Glory is the rightful queen, forfeits and Glory becomes the Queen of the RainWings. Then suddenly Clay crashes in and tells her that Starflight had left and may have warned the NightWings that the RainWings would attack. Trivia * The note from the author says, "For Elliot, born in a wonderful Year of the Dragon, like these books." * The Hidden Kingdom has been voted 4.56 stars on Goodreads. * This book has the same number of chapters as The Dragonet Prophecy, at 35, having the most number among the other books. * The Hidden Kingdom and The Lost Heir have the same number of pages, at 296. * Glory is missing her wing membranes just like Starflight and Moon on their covers. =